Today’s unpleasant events in Harrow/London, UK are instructive to all of us who support freedom and oppose the totalitarian barbarism of political Islam. Those who attended the SIOE demonstration in Harrow today are to be applauded and supported. We wish all of our friends and colleagues in Europe well and support them entirely in their fight for their cultures and freedoms against the rapid encroachment of Islamization there.
“Sing unto the Lord a new song, O people who love Christ our God.”
The days of fun in the sun are drawing to a close as families are spending the last of their summer vacation time with their children prior to sending them back to school. Classes in some of the schools in our local area have already started, with the rest of them to follow suit shortly. Summer brings back memories of the care-free days when one was still a young man. One of my favorite summer-songs used to be “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, those days of soda and pretzels and beer”by the late artist Nat King Cole. Nat King Cole perhaps expressed a sentiment that many of us shared as he continued on “You’ll wish that summer could always be here.”
As an Arab woman who suffered for three decades living under Islamic Sharia, it is clear to me that Islam’s political ideology and Sharia must be fought relentlessly by Western civilization to prevent its application in a free society.
However, I have found myself fighting on two fronts. The first front is against Islamists, a daunting fight indeed. But the other front is one shaped by too many uninformed individuals who like to view themselves as open minded “progressives”. They seem to somehow claim superiority on compassion, on peace, on open-mindedness and on appreciation of other cultures.
For years I worked in the same clinic as a Coptic dentist and we quickly become friends. He was a good man, honest in his work and in his dealings with people, but like many Egyptians he was completely detached from public affairs and was not aware of most political events. As far as he was concerned, the limits of the world were his work and his family.
It is hot in Brussels. Ramadan has begun. The faithful in the predominantly Muslim borough of Molenbeek are not allowed to eat or drink from sunrise until sunset. Non-Muslim policemen, patrolling the streets of Molenbeek in their sweltering cars, are not allowed to eat or drink either. As every year during Ramadan, that they have been told by their superior, Philippe Moureaux, the Socialist mayor of Molenbeek, they have to respect Muslim sensitivities and not to “provoke” Muslims by violating Islamic Ramadan restrictions in public. In effect, Islamic or Sharia law is already applied - for everyone - in the Muslim areas of Brussels.
When Will Westerners Stop Westernizing Islamic Concepts?
Raymond Ibrahim
Recently, Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today wrote an article about Muslim zakat, wherein I was referenced as a "critic of Islam." She then followed up with another article titled "Critic questions the aims and ends of Islamic charity," dedicated to examining my views on zakat.
Twin Towers in Flame —The Sept. 11 attacks were a series of suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the US on Sept. 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked 4 passenger jet airliners.The hijackers intentionally crashed 2 of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. 2,974 people died in the attacks.
The Muslim Brotherhood: A Moderate Islamic Alternative to al-Qaeda or a Partner in Global Jihad?
Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi
The Muslim Brotherhood is increasingly at the center of a heated political controversy in the U.S. and among its Western allies. Foreign Affairs, an important weathervane of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, featured in its March-April issue an article by Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke arguing that the Muslim Brotherhood had become a moderate organization.
Families swarm to the beaches, lakes, and mountains to enjoy the last weeks of the month of August before schools begin. Summer time brings back many fond memories of Egypt- memories of more enlightened times when the people of Egypt regardless of their religious background used to live together in harmony and peace –
In a typical Somali wedding, women wear brightly colored gowns, gold jewelry and elaborate hairstyles. They dance with men to the tunes of Somali love songs, performed by a vocalist and a pianist.
Ø Vented my anger at being forced to pay taxes that are used to build tens of mosques when the Egyptian state has not paid a penny in the construction of a single church since 1952, with the exception of a donation made by President Nasser forty years ago towards the costs of building St. Mark's Cathedral in Abbaseya.
This year marks the 20th anniversary for dismantling the infamous Berlin Wall, the “Mauer”. It was a legacy of the Communist rulers of East Germany, which separated the German population living in the Eastern part of the country from those in the West, and claimed the lives of many Germans. In Egypt of the 21st century, a new “Mauer” has evolved over the past few decades separating its population into Muslims and the Copts. Though this new “Wall” is not seen by the eyes, its pervasive influence has been on the increase separating the Egyptian population into Muslims who may have access to the protection of the law and Copts who seem to have their human and civil rights frequently trampled upon and for the most part have no access to the protection of the law.
As I write these lines, the calendar indicates that it is August 7th, 2009 A.D. which is also Mesra 1st, 1725 A.M. on the Coptic Calendar. It is the first day for a most popular fasting period in honor of our mother and the mother of all Christians, the ever-virgin, Mother of God, the Theotokos, Saint Mary. Indeed it is a blessed and most popular fast. It is observed by the vast majority of the Copts. In my early years as little boy growing in Egypt, I recall many Muslims also observing this fast in honor of our Lady the Virgin Mary. Perhaps one of the reasons for the popularity of this fast is that God in his infinite mercy has granted many people- both Copts and Muslims- the gift of healing from diverse sicknesses and diseases, through the prayers and intercessions of Saint Mary.
CAIRO, Jul 30 (IPS) - A handful of recent clashes between Muslims and Christians has again raised the spectre of sectarian discord in Egypt. The incidents, though relatively minor, highlight longstanding tensions between the country's Muslim majority and its Christian minority.
"As long as Egypt's Christian community suffers from official bias by the state, inter-communal tensions will persist," Naguib Gabriel, lawyer for Egypt's Coptic Church and head of the Cairo-based Egyptian Union for Human Rights told IPS.
Middle East: Churches attacked and Christians arrested? Egypt's ancient church faces new levels of persecution
Jill Nelson
AFP/Getty Images
As 30-year-old Fulla Asaad and her mother-in-law prepared a midday meal on July 11, they spied three Muslim men with cans of kerosene running through the home's courtyard in their small, Egyptian town. Yelling for help, they did their best to stop them but the men poured fuel on the adjacent building—a small structure the Asaads had donated to their church. The men set it on fire—the only gathering place for the Coptic Christian community in Ezbet Basilious, a village in Upper Egypt south of Cairo.
Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, believes that there is no common solution to sectarian problems that arise from time to time in Egypt.
"Every problem should be tackled in its own context and [according to] the environment in which it emerged and should be tackled by all relevant parties," he said.
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, believes that there is no common solution to sectarian problems that arise from time to time in Egypt.
“Every problem should be tackled in its own context and [according to] the environment in which it emerged and should be tackled by all relevant parties,” he said.
In my previous two articles, I had emphasized what is one of the main Arab characteristics - the art of lying otherwise known as Taqia.
The coup of the so-called free officers was based on that characteristic since the first broadcast made by non other than Anwar Sadat. Remember that broadcast had promised for Egyptians to regain their confidence in having their own country free of corruption. This, in itself was a huge lie.
The celebration of a false victory invented by Nasser after the stalemate of 1956’s war is a clear indication and key to understand the typical Arab’s mindset. One of the tenets of Islam is to lie to others. Over time, the liar will even accept the lie to be true.
